CLEVELAND, Ohio-A public memorial service for Cleveland journalist, activist and Hough vintner Mansfield Frazier will take place on Sat, Oct 23, 2021 at the Maltz Performing Arts Center, 1855 Ansel Road in Cleveland on the campus of Case Western Reserve University. Admission is free and open to the public. Free public parking is available. All guests, staff, and speakers must show proof of vaccination or produce a negative test result within 72 hours of entering to be admitted into the venue. Masks are required at all times for visitors.

Viewing: 11:30AM

Memorial Service: 12:30PM

Conclusion: 2:30PM

Tickets for the viewing and service are recommended. Livestream tickets are also available for those unable to attend in person. Both can be found here.

Rather than flowers or gifts, the public is asked to make a donation to Neighborhood Solutions, Inc., the nonprofit organization that Mansfield Frazier created using innovative educational and entrepreneurial strategies to encourage, prepare and assist at-risk youth, veterans, and those returning — or who have returned — to neighborhoods after incarceration in creating greener, healthier and wealthier places to live, work and raise families.

To make a donation to Neighborhood Solutions, please click here.

Mansfield Frazier bio:

When Mansfield Frazier was growing up in Cleveland’s Central neighborhood in the 1950s, he had great expectations. His father, who ran a bar, provided for his family, and Mansfield was a good student with a natural gift for gab. He was accepted to The Ohio State University. But after a high school romance that resulted in a teenage marriage and a couple of kids, his life took a different direction.

For a while he worked in industry and was a skilled craftsman — as he said, the best on the job.  But it was the 1960s. Every time there was a promotion to supervisor, a white guy whom Mansfield had trained got the job.

When his marriage broke up and he became totally frustrated with the discrimination in the workplace, he left Cleveland and spent the next 30 year operating for the most part outside of the law — mostly involved in credit card scams and con games. He was arrested 15 times and convicted 5 times. I still chuckle when I recall his anecdotes about his brushes with the law.

During his prison stints he used his time to read and expand his own education. His vocabulary was enhanced because sometimes the only book that he could get was a dictionary. He had a good working knowledge of the Bible because other times that was the only book available. When there was a prison library — like in The Shawshank Redemption — he read whatever he could get his hands on. He honed his writing skills. In 1995, he published his first book, From Behind The Wall: Commentary on Crime, Punishment, Race, and the Underclass by a Prison Inmate.

He started Château Hough, the winery and vineyard at 66th and Hough, so that he could hire formerly incarcerated people. He wanted to teach formerly incarcerated people a trade and show them that they did not have to go back to crime. If you wanted to turn your life around, Mansfield found a job for you. He started the non-profit Neighborhood Solutions to create re-entry programs for the formerly incarcerated, and they published the national magazine Reentry Advocate, distributed in prison libraries and some halfway houses throughout the country.

Mansfield passed away peacefully at the age of 78 in the home he built in the Hough neighborhood near his vineyard that has rehabilitated so many people returning from prison. He was surrounded by his wife Brenda and family members as he battled low blood pressure and kidney issues. A parade of friends, community organizers, politicians, those he mentored, and good folks from the non-profit community were grateful to be able to say goodbye.

Since 2007, Mansfield Frazier has written over 1400 commentaries for Coolcleveland.com. He continued to write, publish, podcast, create videos and advocate for social justice throughout his life.

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog in Ohio and in the Midwest. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com.